» Continued from Part 1

=== Buddhism
13. Karmapa's pilgrimage itinerary

=== Catholicism
14. Rare rite consecrates virginity

=== Mormonism
15. Adapting 'Mormon' to Emphasize Christianity

=== Jehovah's Witnesses
16. Abducted girl might see Arizona friend

=== Paganism / Witchcraft
17. Venda Cleric Employing Christians Angers Local Witches

=== Hate Groups
18. Black Muslim Activist Khalid Muhammad Dies at 53
19. German Jews Threaten Suit Over Internet Hate Sites
20. Aryan Lawsuit Changes Keenan Family
21. Skinhead Leader Sets Up Shop in Cedar City Home

» Part 3

=== Other News
22. Police foil terror plot to use sarin gas in London
23. Polygamists Assert Rights At Capitol
24. Student Cult Found In Lira
25. Father to sue NHS trust in sex abuse test case
26. Volusia spiritualists win zoning battle against church
27. The search for a virgin goddess gets harder

=== Death Penalty & Other Human Rights Violations
28. Death row on trial

=== Noted
29. Otherkin Come Out of the Closet
30. Believing in God is not a fad.

=== Buddhism

13. Karmapa's pilgrimage itinerary
South Nexus (India), Feb. 19, 2001
http://www.southnexus.com/s
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Cntroversial boy-monk Urgyen Thinley Dorjee has been permitted to undertake his first ever pilgrimage in the country since he fled Tibet in January last year and was granted asylum in India.
(...)

The Karmapa's pilgrimage would be the first-ever tour undertaken by him after coming to India.
(...)

Meanwhile, a joint action committee of All Sikkim Buddhist Organisation was considering to place a memorandum to the Centre urging it to reconsider its decision to allow the Karmapa to visit Rumtek monastery.

''It is high time that the Government should allow the Karmapa to come to Rumtek, which is his original seat,'' the JAC president Kunzang Sherab said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Catholicism

14. Rare rite consecrates virginity
AP, Feb. 16, 2001
http://chicagotribune.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
NEW YORK -- At the bridal shop, the saleswomen were puzzled.

Angela Scannapieco didn't want to register. Junette Romero didn't want a consultant. Both were buying dresses but not for a regular wedding.

Instead, they needed gowns for an ancient Roman Catholic ceremony so rare that fewer than 100 American women have gone through it: the Solemn Rite of Consecration of Virgins for Women Living in the World.

The rite formally affirms the chastity of women who are devoted to the church but who do not want to become nuns.
(...)

The two women wore their dresses for the ceremony, performed Jan. 28 by Bishop Thomas Daily of the Brooklyn Diocese. And both now wear gold bands on their ring fingers to symbolize their marriage to Christ.

''Their calling is not to live in a convent or live a cloistered type of life or wear a habit or be known as sister,'' Daily said. ''Their calling is to remain in the world as lay people but at the same time make this dedication.''

The rite can be traced to the year 500, but it was revived by Pope Paul VI in 1970.

The U.S. Association of Consecrated Virgins, based in Oregon, has 45 official members and estimates another 1,000 live around the world. Consecrated virgins have no formal obligations other than daily prayer, but most also have lay ministries.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Mormonism

15. Adapting 'Mormon' to Emphasize Christianity
New York Times, Feb. 19, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 17 - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has long been concerned that it be understood as a distinctively Christian institution, will step up efforts to discourage use of the term Mormon Church and instead emphasize the name Jesus Christ in references to the church, a leading Mormon official said in an interview on Thursday. It will urge that the church be called first by its full name and then, in subsequent references, the Church of Jesus Christ.

The church will also urge that it not be identified by two other labels common in Utah, the Latter-day Saints Church and L.D.S. Church.

The decision at a meeting of the church's top leadership, also taken with an eye to the international news media interest the church expects to attract during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, will primarily affect how the church's officials refer to the institution, especially in dealings with the news media, and how missionaries refer to the church in their work overseas. But church leaders also hope to encourage members at large to do likewise.

''I don't mind being called a Mormon, but I don't want it said that I belong to the Mormon Church,'' said Elder Dallin H. Oaks, a member of the Council of the 12 Apostles, which, together with the church's three- member First Presidency, exercise the highest level of authority within the 11-million-member church.

Elder Oaks said the church would not discourage use of the term Mormon for church members, although he said it officially prefers they be known as Latter-day Saints. Nor, he said, will the church seek to change names like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Mormon Trail and the Book of Mormon. The word Mormon is taken from the book, where it refers both to a geographical area and also to a prophet of that name.

He said the decision, taken by the First Presidency and the Council of the 12, but not yet announced to church members, needed to be seen in context, as a ''deliberate reaffirmation'' of a long effort in favor of wider use of the church's full title.

''We haven't adopted a new name of the church,'' Elder Oaks said, noting that Mormons regard the full name as having been revealed by God to Mormonism's first prophet, Joseph Smith. ''We have adopted a short-hand reference to the church that we think is more accurate.''

Jan Shipps, a non-Mormon expert on the church who is professor emeritus of history and religious studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, said efforts to discourage the use of the term Mormon Church represent ''the desire of Latter-day Saints - and not just the leadership - to be understood as a Christian tradition.''
(...)

In recent years, Professor Shipps said, an evolution in language within the church has been under way, so that Mormon as a noun is being replaced by ''an adjective, as in Mormon Christian.''
(...)

Although the Mormons tend to be highly regarded among a wide public for their emphasis on family ties and personal rectitude, the church's teachings are viewed critically by other churches, especially by evangelical Protestants, who say much of Mormon theology - dealing with God, the Trinity, salvation and the nature of the Christian church itself - falls outside orthodox Christianity.

The church, for example, teaches that God has a physical body, that members may progress toward ''deification'' after death, and that in founding the church, Smith was ''restoring'' true Christianity.
(...)

In 1995, the church altered its logo so that ''Jesus Christ'' appears in larger letters. More recently, the church's public affairs office released a statement, bluntly saying there was nothing officially called the Mormon Church.

None of this controversy seems to have impeded the church's rapid growth, particularly overseas, where a majority of the world's 11 million Mormons live. (Utah claims 1.6 million Mormons, or about 15 percent of the total.) But the overseas growth has also put pressure on the church to pay closer attention to what it wants to be called.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

Theologically, The Mormon Church is a cult of Christianity. It does not represent historical, biblical Christianity in any way. Mormons can therefore not be considered Christians (followers of Jesus Christ), and there is no such thing as a ''Mormon Christian.''

Just like attaching a Roll Royce logo to a Volkswagen does not make the latter a Rolls Royce, using the name of Jesus Christ does not make Mormonism ''Christian.'' Suggesting the Mormon Jesus is ''Christian'' is, in fact, as dishonest as selling a counterfeit watch as a ''Rolex.''

=== Jehovah's Witnesses

16. Abducted girl might see Arizona friend
Chicago Sun-Times, Feb. 14, 2001
http://www.suntimes.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Joli Taylor, the mother accused of abducting her daughter and going on the run for 10 years, will ask a judge today to allow the girl's best friend from Arizona to visit her here.

A child psychiatrist, meanwhile, is expected to recommend whether the girl should be allowed to return to Arizona temporarily.
(...)

The teenager has said she wants to go back to Arizona, to the friends and school she knows there. But, in recent weeks, caregivers said they are leaning toward placing her with the social worker.

The mother has said she ran off with her daughter because the girl's father, Michael Reichart, sexually abused the child. Her claims were investigated extensively and never proved.

Reichart, who lives in Arlington Heights, has denied abusing his daughter. He accused Taylor of being mentally unstable and making up the accusation in the midst of their heated custody battle.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Paganism / Witchcraft

17. Venda Cleric Employing Christians Angers Local Witches
Mail and Guardian (South Africa), Feb. 16, 2001
http://allafrica.com/stories/200102160171.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) Thambulo Mabuke, who hails from a village called Tshaulu near Thoyandou, Northern Province, was warned of his imminent death by a group of witches. His biggest sin, according to the witches, is nepotism and discrimination.

An evangelist and member of the local civic association, Mabuke is accused of hiring only Christians to work at various community projects. The witches are angry that Mabuke, who heads the civic association's employment team, employed only Christians to build a community clinic and ''discriminated against Devil worshippers''.

Mabuke learned about his ''sins'' and about his pending death through an anonymous handwritten letter delivered to him last month.

The matter is now with the police and a case of ''assault by threat'' has been opened.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Hate Groups

18. Black Muslim Activist Khalid Muhammad Dies at 53
Reuters, Feb. 17, 2001
http://news.excite.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
ALANTA (Reuters) - Khalid Abdul Muhammad, a former Nation of Islam official known for venomous attacks on Jews, whites and gays, died on Saturday after being hospitalized with a stroke, a spokesman with the Muslim group said.
''We in the Nation of Islam mourn the loss of brother Khalid Muhammad,'' said the group's spokesman James Muhammad.
(...)

Muhammad, who was born Harold Moore Jr. in Texas in 1948, joined the Nation of Islam in 1970, rising quickly through the ranks of the group and eventually becoming the right-hand man to leader Louis Farrakhan.

Muhammad sparked a public outcry in 1993 after he referred to Jews as the ''bloodsuckers of the black nation'' and made offensive remarks about Roman Catholics, whites and homosexuals during a speech in Union, New Jersey.
The fiery rhetoric led to his suspension from the Nation of Islam.

Muhammad later moved to New York, where he was active in Muslim affairs and helped organize the New Black Panther Party.
(...)

In 1998, Muhammad organized the ''Million Youth March'' in New York, which drew fewer than 10,000 people and ended in a clash between police and demonstrators. Dozens of people were injured.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


19. German Jews Threaten Suit Over Internet Hate Sites
Reuters, Feb. 19, 2001
http://news.excite.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's main Jewish organization said Monday it was preparing to take legal action against Internet firms that host neo-Nazi and far-right Web sites.

The Central Council for Jews vice president Michel Friedman said the group was consulting lawyers and would file suit against Internet companies that give access to Web sites carrying anti-Semitic or racist content banned under German law.

Friedman said the German government was acting too slowly in applying strict national laws that ban any material seen to glorify Nazis or the deeds of the Third Reich.

''We're looking at all (Internet) providers in Germany that provide hate information on the spot,'' Friedman told Reuters. ''The point is to motivate the government.''

The council estimates that more than 800 hate-related home pages are already on the web.

Friedman said Germany's Jewish community wanted courts to take a tougher line against hate sites and pointed to a recent French ruling against portal Yahoo, which was ordered to block surfers in France from auctions where Nazi memorabilia are sold.
(...)

There have been previous calls for Germany to follow such a move and supporters of restrictions welcomed a ruling in December by Germany's highest civil court that Yahoo was subject to German law since it was accessible by Germans.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


20. Aryan Lawsuit Changes Keenan Family
AP, Feb. 18, 2001
http://www.lasvegassun.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
In two years, Victoria Keenan went from victim to victor over the Aryan Nations.

Her lawsuit bankrupted the neo-Nazis, and last week she took possession of the hate group's 20-acre compound, which housed and trained some of the nation's most violent racists and anti-Semites.

''We hope to get the evilness out of there and turn it around to something positive,'' said Keenan's son, Jason. They said they plan to sell the compound, perhaps to a human rights organization.

Keenan, 45, and Jason, 21, were chased, shot at and terrorized by Aryan Nations security guards in 1998. Last year they won a negligence lawsuit in civil court, getting a $6.3 million judgment against Aryan founder Richard Butler and his organization.

Life has not been easy for them since.

''There is fear around you all the time and you're watching your back all the time,'' Keenan said.
(...)

The court victory was hailed by many in Idaho as proof that the state's reputation as a haven for racists is undeserved. But there are those who support the Aryan Nations' white supremacist philosophy.

''I've gotten some bad responses from people, evil-looking people,'' said Keenan. ''It's been mentally draining.''

The trial last summer drew numerous supporters of Butler to Coeur d'Alene. The Keenans were reviled on web sites maintained by neo-Nazis.
(...)

''The Keenans are very heroic people,'' said Peter Tepley, a lawyer for the Montgomery, Ala.-based Southern Poverty Law Center who helped represent them in the lawsuit. ''They stood up against the Aryan Nations and brought it down.''

Jason Keenan recalled the discussions with their local lawyer, Norm Gissel, about whether to proceed with the lawsuit.

''You have to look at who you are going up against. It was not like taking on a next door neighbor for slipping on a sidewalk,'' Jason said. ''This is actually a person who could be considered crazy.''
(...)

Butler, who moved to northern Idaho from California in 1973 to found his sect, has vowed to keep preaching from a house in nearby Hayden purchased for him by a wealthy supporter.

He has announced an unprecedented series of public events this year, including marches in Coeur d'Alene and two other towns. His annual Aryan World Congress, which used to draw more than 100 neo-Nazis to Butler's compound, will be held instead at a park nearby.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


21. Skinhead Leader Sets Up Shop in Cedar City Home
Monday, February 19, 2001
The Salt Lake Tribune, Feb. 19, 2001
http://www.sltrib.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
CEDAR CITY -- A racist skinhead group is making waves in this southern Utah community where it plans to set up national headquarters and begin a ''nonviolent'' fight against drugs.

Christopher Davis, a self-proclaimed racist skinhead, said he wants to quell a growing drug problem through peaceful means, such as staging protests in front of drug houses and offering activities to thwart boredom for youth.

''We're not here to start a problem,'' he said Sunday. ''We're not here on the pretenses of being anti-law enforcement or anti-government. We want to be a visible deterrent to the drug problem.''

With a swastika necklace and military-style dog tags hanging from his neck, Davis, 23, said he only wants to put pressure on drug dealers in the area to quit or move out.
(...)

Davis' group, the American United National Socialist Workers Front, currently has about 10 members, he said, including three leaders who use military titles to denote their position. Davis, the self-appointed commander, has started chapters of the group in other states, although he said they are now defunct.

But he said plans are in the works to bring his organization back to life, and he wants to start in Cedar City, which he sees as an enclave of drug users.

That is why last week Davis sent letters to area law enforcement agencies informing them of his new group and offering assistance to fight the drug problem. It was an effort to keep the ''lines of communication open,'' he said.

On Saturday, Davis also held an open forum at his apartment, which serves as his makeshift headquarters, to which about 30 residents showed up to hear him talk about plans to impede the drug problem.

Some of the audience, a mix of black and white, walked out in disgust, others fought back with their own concepts of socialism.

Davis already has seen problems stemming from his beliefs. On Friday, he was charged with aggravated assault in 5th District Court in Cedar City for allegedly wielding a baseball bat at two men in his apartment. Davis said the men were making threats and would not leave; the police said he was the one making threats. Davis was booked into the Iron County Jail and later released on bail of $2,068. No court dates have been set yet for the matter.
(...)

Davis' group is aligned with several of the estimated 600 skinhead groups in the United States, he said, including the Aryan Nations, a white supremacist group based in northern Idaho.
(...)

Cedar City Mayor Harold Shir- ley said although he has not met with the group yet, he is concerned about the presence of a Nazi-type organization. ''We're not really wild about any group that hates another group,'' Shirley said.

The mayor said he is not sure how the group can help with the drug problem and worries how they might go about it.

Iron County Sheriff David ''Dude'' Benson said he is monitoring the group closely and is not sure yet whether to call the organization ''allies in the drug war.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


» Part 3